The break

A break formed early in the race after an initial attack from Bertie Newey, of Metaltek Kuota, that saw Team Wiggins’ Rob Scott join him before they were quickly reeled in by the bunch.

Matt Nowell, of BIKE Channel Canyon, then took his turn to clip off the front as the group went over the start-finish line and his surge of pace could only be matched by Scott and Grant Martin, of Raleigh GAC.

The leading trio quickly established a lead of more than ten seconds, that gradually increased as JLT Condor – and in particular Tom Moses – marshalled the front of the peloton to make sure no-one else could join the leaders.

Nowell’s pace on the front nudged the gap up past 15 seconds and, by the time it increased to more than 20, the Colne crowd were willing the group on to the finish.

Scott goes solo

A puncture put pay to Nowell’s hopes, however, as he struggled round a lap before attempting a bike change and eventually abandoning the race.

That was also it for Martin who, sensing a group of two would not make the end alone, gave up the pace and returned to the chasing pack.

Scott persisted, though, quickly seeing his lead shoot up to more than 30 seconds, and even flirt with the 40s mark, before the well-oiled JLT Condor machine started to reel him in.

They left it late though and with five laps to go Scott still had a lead of ten seconds, however the hunters caught their prey with three circuits remaining and lined it out for a bunch sprint.

Jones and Gibson show their class

Jones once again showed he was the fastest man in the field, racing home to take the win ahead of Gibson, with teammate Jon Mould sitting up in the final metres to be pipped on the line by Tanfield and prevent an all-JLT Condor podium.